Tools & Jigs & Fixtures

2 years ago

eLearning about this target market

Transcript

00:00Hi and welcome to our short session about tools, jigs, fixtures and the economical production of those things with 3D printing.

00:16In particular with continuous fiber reinforced 3D printing.

00:21So let's get this started with a little bit of a walkthrough.

00:26What are tools, jigs and fixtures and share a few examples actually.

00:38Custom fixtures. Custom fixtures are done for very specific purposes with very specific parts.

00:45They are usually done in small amounts. Sometimes just one or three. Stuff like this.

00:53What are custom fixtures?

01:00On the left side you see a welding fixture.

01:03In order to weld a few parts together they need to be held down in very specific positions to start the welding process.

01:14So this is a very specific thing which is usually built for assembly and welding processes.

01:22On the lower right you see a custom jig for an assembly process.

01:29So things need to be held in place in order to do a follow up process.

01:35Again those parts are just one offs or two or three.

01:39Or on the upper right you see a custom fixture for quality management.

01:44If we want to measure a part we need to hold it again in a very specific position.

01:50So another thing where 3D printing can be used instead of traditional manufacturing.

01:57How do we hold other tools?

02:10We need some CNC machines for instance where there is a carousel of tools.

02:18And a very specific tool from a very specific tool vendor needs to be held in position.

02:24And therefore we need this specific single part.

02:29Which again we made.

02:44Vacuum tool holders are quite frequently used.

02:48And a big advantage of 3D printing is that you actually can print the vacuum channels.

02:54I mean the channels where the air is pulled out and the part holds due to the vacuum can be printed.

03:02When you do it in aluminium you actually need to do two parts and bolt them together.

03:08And it's not only a question of manufacturing cost it also is a question of weight.

03:16In the upper right you see a larger CMM fixture.

03:20So this is a CMM machine and the black part actually holds another part which you don't see on this picture.

03:28And on the left just a classic custom fixture.

03:32Another big area which we need to cover actually is grippers.

03:42I mean grippers are widely used in robotics.

03:47Because each robot has a very specific purpose.

03:51And given the purpose he needs a very specific gripper to grip something.

03:57Again here with the robot it's not only and we share a few examples first.

04:05So vacuum grippers for instance or tool holders.

04:10Those things everything which plugs on a robot is actually and I share another few examples here.

04:19Is actually not only about the manufacturing cost it's also about the weight.

04:27Each robot comes with a payload and if the gripper alone is actually 20 kilograms.

04:39This actually significantly reduces the load this robot can lift.

04:46So think about the lower right corner here where you see this very specific gripper for gripping a larger part.

04:55I mean if you would have done this in aluminium this would certainly be at around 10 to 15 kilograms.

05:05Instead doing it in plastic is much much lighter.

05:10So it can have two consequences for the robot basically.

05:16First is time because if the overall weight is less the robot can act quicker.

05:27Or as another consequence you may choose a cheaper robot with a lower payload for this specific purpose.

05:36And there are tons of examples on those very specific end of arm tooling.

05:44This is another way to spell it either gripper or end of arm tooling.

05:50Because those tools sit at the end of the arm of a robot.

05:54So again another very very good application.

05:59Another advantage of 3D printing is that they don't scratch the part.

06:06I mean if you would do this in metal you may end up in putting another pad on this metal.

06:14In order to not scratch the part which gets gripped from this tool.

06:20Another advantage of just printing them.

06:26Custom assembly tools are also a very special thing.

06:30Because believe it or not in each organization which is assembling a car, a motorbike, a bicycle, a machine, a dishwasher, whatever it is.

06:48You will find hundreds if not thousands of those specific tools doing very specific tasks in assembly and in disassembly.

07:00What you need to do to figure out walk the line, walk the assembly line, have a closer look how people operate in those situations.

07:12And if they use any kind of tool for adjustment.

07:16Let's share a few examples.

07:18You just need to walk into these companies and have a closer look in the assembly line.

07:24Have a closer look in the quality management.

07:27Have a closer look in the manufacturing space.

07:30And you can find those parts.

07:33You can find those decent applications of custom assembly tools in this case.

07:41Here another example.

07:43Another welding assembly tool.

07:46So you see on the left side that these are a few metal parts which need to be welded together.

07:53And they need to be hold in a specific position.

07:56And on the right side you see a custom positioning tool.

08:01So if you do certain processes in manufacturing or in assembly, you need to hold something in a very specific position.

08:09And again, you need a tool to do this.

08:12And it's always a question.

08:14Do you machine it or do you print it?

08:17Again, printing could be much, much easier in a sense.

08:22Custom inspection fixtures.

08:24We talked about this already to some extent.

08:28Those are fixtures which are used in quality management.

08:33For instance, on the right side you see a custom inspection fixture for a turbine blade.

08:40And this turbine blade needs to be clamped onto this fixture to be always in the same position for measurement purposes.

08:52Custom jigs and jaws.

08:55Jigs are little small assemblies which again clamp parts in a very specific position.

09:04And jaws are kind of fixtures which are used in CNC processing.

09:12So on the left side you see actually a custom jig.

09:16This is a little assembly, manual or automatic or however you do it, which actually holds something in place.

09:25And on the right side you see a custom fixture or so-called jaw or soft jaw.

09:33Those things hold CNC machine parts in very specific positions.

09:40They are super easy to design because you have the part actually in your CAD system.

09:50So you do an enclosure of your part, do a negative, split it in half and print it. Done. Period.

09:57It's a task of five minutes or so.

10:00So again, those could be obtained overnight and the next day used quite easily.

10:09And again, another few examples, you know, a soft jaw as an assembly aid.

10:15Again, also for assembly sometimes parts need to be hold and on the right side a soft jaw in a production machine.

10:24Again, there is a specific production process and the part needs to be holded there.

10:31Another few examples of so-called soft jaws in clamping systems could be manual or automatic clamping systems.

10:41Again, only purpose is for a very specific process, hold the part in a very specific direction.

10:49Here are another few examples. These are classic soft jaws for CNC machining.

10:57Again, super easy to design in your CAD system.

11:01Just export them, put them in the slicer, put some reinforcement where needed and make sure it gets done overnight and used next day.

11:14Well, that's another example of a very specific tool, a soft jaw which holds a part in a very specific position.

11:25For instance, to do a simple drilling process and this is a free-form shape part.

11:33So, the inner surface of this plastic part can be quite complex and CNCing it is expensive.

11:43Again, easy task, do the negative in your CAD software, split it in half, print it, done.

11:52Clients, basically, you may want to ask them, hey, have a look at the drawers beyond your workbench.

12:00Because usually, I mean, those parts exist in hundreds or thousands in a manufacturing or assembly company.

12:09They are just there because they have been done in the past for parts and they got stored in those drawers.

12:17Or, what I would always love to do is, if you are on site, the best way to figure out what's going on is do what I would call a walk the line.

12:33Take your champion on the hand and say, hey, may I visit your assembly line?

12:40May I visit your quality inspection?

12:43May I visit your manufacturing?

12:48And with an open eye and some experience, you will find those applications.

12:54And then, it's simply about you to ask a few questions.

13:01So, some basic questions to ask, you know, in regards to custom tools, fixtures, do you produce them on your own, leveraging your CNC equipment?

13:13How often does this happen? On a weekly or monthly basis?

13:17In average, how much time do you spend on design, CAM programming and manufacturing for one custom tool?

13:28You may want to ask those questions to figure out what's the frequency, how often, how much time, how much cost is involved in this process.

13:42And in regards to cost, let's move to the next slide, because I did some, well, analytics on the cost of machining things.

13:58And honestly, it's not actually about the cost of labor and other stuff, because, I mean, the operators are here.

14:09But it's about the cost of the machine.

14:13And a CNC machine has a depreciation of usually 10 years.

14:20If this CNC machine costs $100,000, well, this sums up to be $5 an hour.

14:34Add power costs on top. Add maintenance costs. Usually, those machines come with a maintenance contract.

14:42Add tooling and consumables as a cost of this machine.

14:48This data is from a German association called VAUDE MR, which is kind of an organization of German machine manufacturers.

15:02And this is just an average and percentages, and I did the calculation.

15:07But it sums up to be, hey, this machine costs me about $11 each hour.

15:16Labor and time. I mean, quite obviously, in a CNC process, you spend more time, which is a little bit hard to calculate,

15:27because you don't only need to have the CAD model, you need to also have the CNC program.

15:40And you need an operator at the CNC machine.

15:45And this process is kind of time-consuming, which is causing another issue.

15:54Usually, you have a lead time in order to get this part.

16:00If you outsource it to a CNC shop, it can actually take weeks to get this part back.

16:06If you do it in-house, it may have a lead time of a few days.

16:13But comparing this to 3D printing, well, you can have it basically next day or the day after next day.

16:21And by the way, the cost and the hourly cost of a 3D printer is much, much, much lower than a CNC machine.

16:35And you spend not so much time on doing it.

16:39So, it's an economical reason.

16:43It's not only the reason of weight and non-stretching surfaces and payload of robots.

16:51It's also an economical point of view to use your more expensive equipment, really for the difficult tasks in your organization,

17:03and use this equipment, the 3D printer, for the easy tasks of tools, jigs and fixtures and soft jaws.

17:11And this machine can run 24-7 without even being observed from anybody.

17:20So, that's the real difference.

17:23That's the real economical logic behind doing tools, jigs and fixtures and jaws and soft jaws with 3D printing,

17:34and not with CNC machining, when it makes sense.

17:42Should you do this with an ISO print?

17:44Well, continuous fiber reinforcement, it is as strong as aluminum or steel.

17:50We have free fiber positioning, allowing us to very discreetly put in fibers where it is needed.

18:00As a good starting point for tools, jigs and fixtures and jaws, I would also always do a lattice infill.

18:09Because lattice infills distribute the forces equally and make a substantially strong part.

18:18And it's an easy thing to do. It's just a few mouse clicks in Aura and then you can basically go.

18:28Again, I want to highlight the fact that non-hydrophobic materials, whenever cutting fluid comes into account, is mandatory.

18:42Nylon or the brand name of Markforged is Onyx, will not do the job. Period.

18:54And this is actually the way we should basically talk about it.

19:41OK, now let's share a few of our own examples.

19:53Here you see actually a classic tool gripper.

19:57This is, as you can see on the lower right side, holds tools in a cabinet of a CNC machine.

20:05And again, the cost is lower than CNCing it.

20:12In particular, the machine cost.

20:15It's not even the material. It's a machine.

20:19And kind of the operator.

20:23And the lead time. Well, again, this could be weeks in an organization to get the CNC machine available to you.

20:36Get the CNC program done and use it.

20:40But it could be days in 3D printing.

20:45Another example of a custom tool is this little gripper, which is actually in a packaging machine.

20:59Well, let me share a little story here, because I think packaging machines are quite a good market for 3D printing.

21:07In a different sense, actually.

21:10There is one packaging machine manufacturer in Germany, which basically they have their own 3D printer.

21:19But what they do is, when they deliver a packaging machine to a client, let's say, they deliver something from Germany to Singapore.

21:29And build it up and make it operational.

21:32They also deliver a printer.

21:35And the only purpose of this printer is, whenever a part breaks or fails, to quickly reproduce this part.

21:43So they have a digital repository of available parts for this client.

21:50They simply print it, assemble it, and the machine continues working.

21:58I mean, this is really a use case where I would say, if you can convince a few of those machine manufacturers,

22:08who are living from exporting stuff, you know, on the whole world,

22:14to reduce cost of delivery and spare parts shipping,

22:21and in a much, much more sustainable way, because parts get produced at the point of need.

22:29And not anywhere on this planet, and air transported around the whole planet.

22:38Not a good use case, quite obviously, you know.

22:43Soft jaws.

22:45Again, in each organization, doing manufacturing, doing CNC, doing inspection and quality measurement.

22:54Tons.

22:56Tons of them.

23:01So, a small competitive analysis with Markforged.

23:11Comparison between an A4 from Anisoprint and a Markforged MKII.

23:18So, you see that the maintenance cost, and the material cost, and the printer cost, is actually super, super high.

23:31Also, if they want to use the full spectrum of Markforged software, they need to pay a pretty high price.

23:38We will have more details in the competitive section of the learning, where we only talk about Markforged.

23:48And, honestly, our biggest advantage is the open material system, free fiber placement, and the alternative materials, which you can choose.

24:00Plastics have been purposefully developed over the last almost 100 years, with very specific mechanical, chemical, or thermal properties.

24:12And why would you buy a printer where you can only use one material?

24:20That's absolutely nonsense.

24:23This would be the same if you buy a CNC machine and just use it with one specific aluminum 6061.

24:32Doesn't work with anything else. Nonsense. Nobody does this.

24:37But, again, our competitive e-learning will have much more detail about this.

24:44But, actually, your biggest competitor is the status quo.

24:49I mean, we almost assume that people run around in organizations and daily think about, hey, what can we do better?

24:57No, they don't. No, they don't.

25:00People love the status quo, actually.

25:02This is basically human behavior.

25:05They love the status quo.

25:08So, it is about you to challenge your potential clients with new ideas.

25:19Make them thinking about it.

25:22Open their eyes.

25:25Ask the right question to get the information you need.

25:32And then apply value to this information in order to convince them.

25:38And, quite obviously, as we have seen, an isoprint saves time and money.

25:48An isoprint is fast compared to tooling and CNCing and machining.

25:57Because it's so simple.

25:59You just need a 3D CAD file.

26:01You need to do a little bit of slicing.

26:04Start easily with lattice reinforcement.

26:09Hit print.

26:11Pick it up and use it.

26:15The status quo is also kind of critical for us because, well, people think about 3D printing and plastic in general as weak.

26:26They don't hit tolerances.

26:29They don't survive machine tool cutting fluids.

26:33They don't survive heat.

26:36Well, we need to educate the clients.

26:40Because, I mean, although they may have experience with 3D printing,

26:46they for sure don't have experience with continuous fiber reinforcement 3D printing.

26:55And they don't see the benefits if they don't see and understand what we can do better.

27:04So, you need to educate the market.

27:09And quite obviously, as we have seen in the previous slides, if you do it right, if you find the right applications, if you leverage your printer, the return on invest is simply in a few months.

27:29Because it's so much cheaper to do it this way, achieving exactly the same quality, strength, accuracy, which you need in your follow-up processes.